An external defibrillator delivers energy to a heart of a patient via electrodes placed upon the patient's chest. Often, external defibrillators are used to deliver energy in the form of a defibrillation pulse to a heart that is undergoing ventricular fibrillation and has lost its ability to properly contract. Ventricular fibrillation is particularly life threatening because activity within the ventricles of the heart is so uncoordinated that virtually no pumping of blood takes place. If untreated, the patient whose heart is experiencing ventricular fibrillation may die within a matter of minutes.
An electrical pulse delivered to a fibrillating heart may depolarize the heart and cause it to reestablish a normal sinus rhythm. In some cases, the patient may need multiple pulses, and an external defibrillator may deliver different quantities of energy with each electrical defibrillation pulse. Further, the defibrillator may provide additional or alternative therapies to the patient, such as cardioversion or pacing therapy. As examples, the external defibrillator may be an automated external defibrillator (AED) used by a first responder or bystander to treat the patient, or a more fully-featured defibrillator/monitor, either manual or automatic, that is used by paramedics.
In some cases, the defibrillator collects and saves information related to the patient. This patient data may include personal and physiological data. Personal data may include the patient's name, age, sex, medical conditions, prescribed medications, or circumstances surrounding the need for treatment with the defibrillator. Physiological data may include the patient's heart rate, blood pressure, electrocardiogram (ECG), or other measured data related to the patient's condition. The patient data may also include a record of therapies provided to the patient, as well as audio recorded during the treatment of the patient. The patient data stored in the defibrillator may be downloaded to another device, such as a computing device for review, generation of a “run report” related to the treatment of the patient, or integration into the patient's long-term medical records.